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Sramaņa, Vol 58, No. 2-3/April-September 2007
Seventhly, since it is knowledge of all things, it must naturally include the knowledge of the reality and knowledge of the duty. Omniscience in Indian Background: The Cārvāka Materialist
Cārvāka (Lokāyata) system totally denies the existence of any omniscient being because according to them perception (Pratyaksa) alone is the only source of knowledge. The Lokāyatas flatly deny the existence of the disembodied soul??, God23, Paraloka (any other world) and Karmaphala?4 (fruition of Karma) etc. Since, being a materialistic, they do not believe in any individual soul or god from the substratum of omniscient knowledge, there is no question of accepting the theory of omniscience. The Indian Skeptics and Agnostics
The Sūtrakstāngaas mentions another system known as Ajñānavādins, the agnostics. They are identified with Sañjaya and his school. The tendency of Sañjaya's teaching was skeptical or agnostic, based on studious evasion or suspension of judgments over the metaphysical questions. It is natural to expect them that agnostics and skeptics will never accept the concept of omniscience. They do not believe in any super-normal cognition, but assert that its scope is limited. There is no cognition with unlimited area; hence, there is no concept of omniscience. The Mimāṁsakas View
The Mîmāṁsakas object the idea of omniscience either of God or of man, partly on metaphysical but mainly on religious ground. Mīmāṁsakas are very particular about the supreme authority of Vedas. In accepting the idea of omniscience, they are very cautious that the authority of Veda is not violated. Šābara opines that only through Veda the objects that are past, present, future, minute, obstructed or distant can be known. No sense organ can approach them. They believe that only performance of a set of certain rituals can guarantee the realization of the highest good of life." when an action is performed, there arises in the soul of the performer a certain potential energy, in
